Super exciting to stumble upon this #Sanderling with #geolocator in #Zackenberg @ZERO74N 11 years after I ringed her on her birthday. She cared for 4 fresh hatchlings together with a male with @_BTO ring from UK. #ornithology

Read about her rich life history in the thread below.

7 July 2008: Ringed as hatchling (weighing 7.3 grams), in #Zackenberg #Greenland @ZERO74N

17 July 2008: First set of colour-rings (weighing 32 grams now). Her three siblings are colour-ringed too.

26 August-3 September 2008: Observed Wadden Sea island #Griend, Wadden Sea, Netherlands

19 January 2009: Observed and photographed (by Bernard Spaans) Walvis Bay #Namibia by the same observer who saw the bird in the Wadden Sea just a few months earlier!

17 July 2009: A bit more than 1 year old now, observed in northern Brittany, France, on her second southward migration already. Photo by Gert-Jan Cromwijk.

Observed in Namibia: winters 2009/2010, 2011/2012, 2012/2013, 2013/2014, 2014/2015

Observed in Wadden Sea, Netherlands: August 2014

Observed in Zackenberg, Greenland: 6 July 2011, 27 June 2012, June –July 2013

24 June 2015: Captured on 4-egg clutch. Given a new set of colour-rings and a #geolocator. Her mate later appeared to winter in France.

9 July 2015: Clutch gets eaten by an Arctic fox. She is 8 years and 2 days old now.

2015-2019: Observed and photographed with geolocator in Wadden Sea, Netherlands, and Walvis Bay, Namibia, multiple times.

Photo by Mark Boorman (14 October 2017, Walvis Bay Namibia)

19 May 2019: Observed and photographed in southern France. Based on earlier geolocator tracks from Namibia-wintering Sanderlings, she presumably had just arrived after a non-stop trans-African flight from Namibia!

Photo by Marc G.

12 July 2019 (just after midnight): Given her third set of colour-rings, after freeing her from the geolocator she carried around for 4 years.

Hopefully this old lady will provide us with even more exciting travel stories!